Rashid Buttar, D.O.

One of the cardinal signs of quackery is a
strong tendency to give every patient the same diagnosis and to
offer the same dubious "therapy" to fix that diagnosis.
--Orac

Rashid Buttar is an
osteopath who believes that the cause of all chronic disease is
"toxicity." This doesn't mean he thinks poisons or infections
are the cause of all disease, however, because he thinks there
are "energetic toxicities," "psychological/emotional
toxicities," and "spiritual toxicities."*
He applies his belief in "toxicities" at a place called the
Center for Advanced Medicine and Clinical Research in
Huntersville, North Carolina.*

On November 20, 2007,
the
North Carolina Medical Board charged Buttar with providing
therapies to several cancer patients "that were unproven and
wholly ineffective. The therapies consisted primarily of
intravenous administration of a variety of substances, none of
which has any known value for the treatment of cancer. The
substances included EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid),
chromium, certain vitamins, and hydrogen peroxide." (Have a look
at
what Buttar prescribed for one of his cancer patients.) The
Board charged that Buttar’s treatment of these patients was
unprofessional, unethical, ineffective, and exploitive; it
sought to "annul, suspend, revoke, or limit his license to
practice medicine." The Board restricted his practice so that he
could no
longer treat children or cancer patients, but he was allowed
to continue his "toxicity" treatments.

Rashid Buttar, D.O.Visiting Scientist, North Carolina State University, [his
specialty was listed as "food science"] Dr. Buttar
received his undergraduate degree from Washington University
in St. Louis with a double major in Biology and Theology and
then attended medical school at the University of Osteopathic
Medicine and Health Sciences, College of
Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery
in Des Moines, Iowa. He trained in General Surgery and
Emergency Medicine and then served as Brigade Surgeon for the
2nd Infantry Division, Republic of South Korea and later, as
the Chief, Department of Emergency Medicine at Moncrief Army
Community Hospital at Ft. Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina
while serving in the US Army.

Dr. Buttar practices in Charlotte, NC, where he is the
medical director of Advanced Concepts in Medicine, a clinic [he
created] specializing in treating cancer, heart disease,
and other chronic conditions in patients refractory to
conventional treatments. He also serves as Director of
Clinical Research and Development for V-SAB Medical
Laboratories [which seems to be a lab that manufactures his
chelation cream], where he is extensively involved in research
with polypeptide sequencing and identification technologies as
well as innovative methodologies for drug-delivery mechanisms.
Dr. Buttar has lectured worldwide on these subjects at medical
congresses, symposia, and to lay audiences. He also continues
to teach actively as faculty for mainstream medical courses,
such as Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) courses for
physicians through the American College of Surgeons as well as
teaching Pediatric Advanced Life Support and Advanced Cardiac
Life Support courses to other physicians, nurses, and
emergency response personnel. [He sounds like a swell guy, but
none of these activities have anything to do with treating
autism, cancer, or reversing the aging process.]

In short, Buttar's
resume is a bit bloated.

His latest claim to
fame has come from his alleged cure of Desiree Jennings.

Desiree Jennings is
a 28-year-old cheerleader who has become
the poster
child for the anti-vaccination movement based on her claim
that a flu shot caused her dystonia (a neurological disorder).
Her symptoms appeared ten days after she got the shot. Most
media stories made it clear that there must be some connection
between the young woman's health problems and the flu shot. The
reporters didn't have to come right out and say that the shot
caused her problems. That was clearly implied by having the
report at all. Reporters aren't paid to encourage viewers to
think, however. So, we should not expect them to investigate
other possible causes of the young woman's problems. They won't
report that 9 days before her illness, she drank 20 shots of
tequila. [For those of you who can't figure it out for
yourselves, I'm making this stuff up about the nine days of
Christmas for illustration purposes.] Eight days before her
illness, someone spiked her drink with ecstasy. Seven days
before her illness, she ate a hamburger at McDonalds. Six days
before her illness, she spent time in a toxic building where the
DMV is located. Five days before her illness, she fell out of
bed. Four days before her illness, she drank some bottled water
that a friend gave her. Three days before her illness she
watched a whole movie in fast forward mode. Two days before her
illness, she took a neuroleptic for facial pain. And the day
before she got ill, she rode a roller coaster for three hours.
Why didn't the reporters note these things? Why didn't they go
back eleven days and beyond to see if there might not be
something else they might causally connect to the illness?
Because the flu shot is the current bogeyman. Next year it could
be ground beef. In any case, the odds are near zero that this
woman's health problems are
indicative of dystonia as reported, according to the
Dystonia Medical Research Foundation, or
that
the flu vaccine had anything to do with her (most likely)
psychogenic disorder. For the full scoop on this story,
which may be
the worst reporting ever, see
Orac and
Steven
Novella.

Jennings claims that
she was healthy until about ten days after she received the
seasonal flu vaccine. She then developed a severe respiratory
illness that required hospitalization. Shortly after that she
had difficulty speaking and walking, with involuntary muscle
contractions and contortions. Her symptoms are relieved by
walking backward or by running.

There is no known
way that the flu (which is what probably hospitalized her) or a
flu vaccine could cause dystonia, and there is not a single case
in the medical literature of such a thing ever happening. Still,
there is always a first time, I suppose. But getting bogged down
in that discussion is a red herring because it is very unlikely
that Jennings suffers from dystonia. Several doctors, including
neurologists, and the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation have
viewed the video and believe that her symptoms are not
consistent with dystonia ("or any organic movement disorder"*),
but are consistent with a psychogenic disorder. The Dystonia
Medical Research Foundation issued the following statement:

Because of the concern of
individuals with dystonia as to whether or not to get a flu
shot because of this reported case, we have sought the opinion
of dystonia experts on this case. Based on the footage that
has been shared with the public, it is their unanimous
consensus that this case does not appear to be dystonia.*

Jennings is sure the
flu shot caused her symptoms, but she is not the best authority
on the subject of what caused her body to begin functioning in
the weird and disabling way it now functions. Dr. Buttar claims
that doctors at Johns Hopkins and at Fairfax linked her symptoms
with the flu shot.

Despicably, Generation Rescue (GR)
and the anti-vaccine movement were quick to jump on this case
and exploit it for their own propaganda. They immediately
portrayed themselves as “experts” – apparently able to make
and treat such neurological diagnoses. However,
after
push back from the dystonia community, GR took down their
web page they had put up to support Jennings. But then after a
few days they had apparently made the calculation that,
despite the fact that this was likely not a case of genuine
dystonia or vaccine injury, the propaganda value was too treat
to ignore, and they could just attack the physicians who felt
obliged to properly analyze this case.*

Meanwhile, Buttar
declared that Jennings has been misdiagnosed and suffers from
"Acute, Viral Post Immunization Encephalopathy and Mercury
Toxicity with secondary respiratory and neurological deficits."
However, everybody who comes into Buttar's clinic is diagnosed
with toxicity and his specialty is getting rid of toxicities.
(During the Medical Board hearings mentioned above, Dr. Art
McCulloch asked Buttar's nurse practitioner, Jane Garcia,
"Doesn't it strike you as a little strange that every patient
that comes through your door has heavy metal toxicity?")

Buttar now promotes the OligoScan, a questionable medical device, in his search for toxic metals to chelate. The device scans the skin and uses spectrophotometry to detect trace amounts of metals. Assuming the device reads correctly, how would you know that the metals came from within the body rather than from some external source?